1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a kneading apparatus that is used to knead molding sand etc.
2. Description of Related Art
A technology related to such a field is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-31378. To perform a kneading process with the kneading apparatus described in this publication, an outer shell container is moved upward and silica sand is fed into the outer shell container through a chute. Thereafter, a specified amount of curing agent is poured into the outer shell container while an agitating blade disposed inside the outer shell container is being rotated at a predetermined speed. Then, the silica sand and the curing agent are kneaded together while the agitating blade is being rotated. After kneading, the outer shell container is turned over to feed the kneaded sand into a sand feeding chute, and the kneaded sand is packed into a core mold through the sand feeding chute to mold a core.
Since the agitating blade used in the above kneading apparatus rotates around a rotation axis extending in the vertical direction, due to the centrifugal force, the kneaded sand easily adheres to the wall surface of the outer shell container, which reduces the kneading efficiency.